The quest to become the Asian Champion in cricket has reached its climax as the final of the Asia Cup 2018 will be played tomorrow. India and Bangladesh will face each other in the Asia Cup 2018 final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Both the teams emerged as the top teams after the Super 4 round and will now eye to bag the Asia Cup 2018 trophy.

It can be seen that the Asia Cup 2018 has got quite a similar fate like that of last edition of Asia Cup tournament. In the Asia Cup 2016 too, India and Bangladesh qualified for the finals with India bagging victory by 8 wickets. While considering the 2016 and 2018 editions of Asia Cup together, there are lot of interesting facts to look upon. Here we take a gaze on some of such interesting facts regarding India and Bangladesh.

In Asia Cup 2016, India and Bangladesh played only two matches against each other including the final. In Asia Cup 2018 too, both the teams will be playing only two matches against each other including the final.

Before the finals of Asia Cup 2016, India played only one match against Bangladesh in the tournament which was won by India. This time too, India has played only one match against Bangladesh before the upcoming final and it was also won by Indian side.

In 2016 edition of Asia Cup, India did not lose a single match in the tournament. This time too, India has not lost any match till now. However, India tied one match against Afghanistan.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan were the opening batsmen in the final of Asia Cup 2016. This time too, it seems like both will again open the Indian innings.

In Asia Cup 2016, Virat Kohli was part of the Indian squad but this time, he is not part of the team. It will be interesting to see what difference does it brings to Indian team’s performance this time.

While the 2016 Asia Cup final was affected by rains and was reduced to 15 overs, it will be interesting to see it happens this time too. However chances are very less as the match is going to take place in Dubai, a place which gets almost no rainfall during the year.

In the last edition of Asia Cup, bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were part of the squad, however, only Bumrah and Jadeja played in the final against Bangladesh. This time too, all the three players are part of the squad and it will be interesting to see if all of them play in the final or not.

In Asia Cup 2016 final, there was only one full time spinner in the form of R Ashwin. But this time, there is a possibility that India will play with two full time spinners in the form of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

In the present Bangladesh team, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza and Mahmudullah are the only three players who were also part of the team during 2016 edition of Asia Cup.

Last time, India bowlers and batsmen showed collective efforts to defeat Bangladesh as Bangladesh could only score 120 in 15 overs and the target was easily achieved by India. Will it be a similar type of affair this time? Moreover, will India again bag the trophy again? This is the most crucial thing to look upon during the Asia Cup 2018 final.